Letters | 14 January 2016

Borderline case

Sir: Alex Massie (‘The painful truth for Ruth’, 9 January) correctly identifies the challenges facing the Scottish Conservatives. But he is wrong to say it will ‘never’ be the moment for a Tory revival. Tax devolution is a game-changer. For the first time in years, the Conservative party gets to fight a Scottish battle on its strengths of economic competence; meanwhile, the SNP finally gets to demonstrate how to eliminate austerity and raise public spending — all without raising taxes. (In a low oil-price environment.)

Toxic Tories? Not half as toxic as Labour are now. Post-referendum, voter positions are deeply entrenched and a party that can’t even agree on the basics (the Union, tax credits, Trident) is rightly held in contempt. Corbyn’s arrival hasn’t exactly diminished the London-centric image, either. The referendum was won by just 400,000 votes; the Scottish Conservatives are pulling in more than that while barely out of first gear. The further devolution goes, the greater the opportunities.
Sanjoy Sen
Aberdeen

Charitable assessments

Sir: As chief executive of an independent charitable foundation, I concur with Harriet Sergeant’s recommendations (‘How to spot a charity snake’, 2 January). What was so depressing about the Kids Company story is that we and other funders have always believed that funding in the charity sector must be held to normal standards of scrutiny: there is no reason to fund substandard work in an environment abounding with small but mighty charities which are well governed.

Harriet’s central challenge — ‘How do you know if a charity is changing lives?’ — is one that we ask ourselves every day. Our regional grant managers visit charities week in, week out, to find out who and how many use the charity, meeting beneficiaries directly, and asking for evidence of effectiveness now and over the long term. If only the government had been anywhere near as robust in its assessment of Kids Company.